Well I never thought Iíd be the one typing and article on the death of the Playstation 3 but here it is, or more correctly the death of its profitability. With the Playstation 4 said to be out soon but Sony releasing another Playstation 3 slim an event has occurred again at Sony.

A hacker group has got in again. Itís ok donít go running to call the bank and cancel your cards again itís not the PSN database this time. The hacker group calling themselves the Three Musketeers have managed to break Sonyís security (said to be one of its main servers) and extract and distribute security codes used in the PS3. So what does this mean ?

Well previously Sony removed the dual Os system option from the PS3 after hackers were able to use this feature initially to hack into their PS3 consoles and get them to run and played copied games, or games in some cases saved on USB and other external hard drives. Sony promptly went overboard and sent in the legal heavies not only shutting down what was meant to be the only factory producing the chip required to mod the PS3 but also the person who figured out how to do it, threatening serious legal action such as suing him personally for any perceived lost earning through piracy. Now while some of those chips were out there and could easily be copied, the piracy was less available and with patches and vigilance Sony believed they could kill off these chips and have the PS3 be the unpiratable console again. The codes that were leaked were master security codes which pirates will be able to use to mod their PS3s not only play copied games but be able to play online without fear of a ban as the master codes can be used to bypass every security update and patch designed to detect modded consoles.

So suddenly the console hardest to pirate for has managed to become the one easiest to pirate for not due to the consoles security but due to Sonyís own security measures. Iím not writing this piece here to in any way praise those involved in this data theft, Iím certainly not going to suggest they are some noble Robin Hood esc character. What I will say is this is devastating news for Sony themselves who actually charge developers a premium to use the PSN system for their games (More of a premium than the two other consoles anyway). With sales down of all their devices Sony is struggling to compete with its name no longer getting it the sales power as other brand devices begin to do the same as Sony for less money. Previously it was said both Microsoft and Sony to an extent had to use sales in other areas to prop up their console division (to an extent anyway) and with the potential for pirates to now have almost free reign over the PS3 without being able to be stopped it really is a huge blow for them.

What this does and should teach people is to never lay down the challenge of saying something is unhackable.

Here's the new mad part though. If stories are to be believed, Sony also then released the codes online later on to prevent the pirates who stole the information being able to sell it. Essentially Sony have given the keys to its console away for people to jailbreak the thing all they want.